Pokémon: Feudal Red-Medieval Blue
by Oswald Bastable
Summary: Ever wonder what the Pokémon World was like way back when? Back in the day when castles dotted the landscape and samurai roamed the land? This is that story. An epic tale of war, adventure, romance and Pokémon from Feudal Era Kanto.
1. Chapter 1

_A.N.: Hey guys. So, this is a reboot of a concept started a while ago. Ever wonder what the Pokémon World was like in days of yore, a hundred, two hundred, five hundred years before the high tech era where the Anime and Games take place? Ever wonder what the history of the Pokémon world looked like? This is what this fanfic is. Basically, it's a Pokémon story based on the Gen I games/Pokémon Adventures/Pokémon Origins canon (but with liberal borrowing from the Anime/Pokémon Yellow World as well) if it took place in a "Feudal Era Japan" Pokémon world. To an extent, the idea is to explore what the world of Pokémon would be like before modern technology. Hopefully, however, y'all will also be entertained by the copious amounts of adventure, intrigue, Pokémon battles and romance which will also be included, and which hopefully won't suck. This story begins right after Red/Ash/Satoshi defeats Blue/Gary/Shigeru for the Champion title, upon the return of both to Pallet Town. So... without further ado, here goes. Hope y'all like, and don't forget to R &R._

 _Thanks for reading,_

 _-The Author_

 **Chapter I**

It was a deceptively calm evening in Pallet Town. The sun was setting over the farm houses, sprinkled as they were across that small village nestled between sea and forests. Pokémon, and people in traditional _kimonos_ and conical _kasa_ rice hats returned from work on their farms; and as the cool evening breeze blew away the day's heat, the wind chimes rang on the shrine at the entrance of the Castle.

There was no trace of electric appliances or modern technology anywhere in Kanto in those days, or anywhere else in the world for that matter. The world of Pokémon was very, very different.

By a wooden table in the the Castle's dining room, the town's resident Pokémon Master, Master Okkido, was having dinner, knelt _seiza-_ style on a _tatami_ sitting mat. Next to him, in a matching white kimono, his apprentice also sat. Opposite to them both was a pair of youths. One, clean cut and rather angry-looking, was a young man with spiky brown hair; he wore a purple kimono. The other looked a lot less serious, and as we shall see, he had every reason to be happy; he had black hair and a blue kimono, and, although his clothes were considerably more worn, a wide smile graced his face.

Master Okkido, addressed the both of them:

"Shigeru; Satoshi. I am very proud of both of you," he said "I do not say this lightly either. Of course, Shigeru, being my grandson, I would have expected you to hold onto your title a bit longer; I came to the Indigo Plateau as soon as I heard you had won, but by the time I was there you had already lost to Satoshi. Nonetheless, you are both now Pokémon Masters, and not only Pokémon Masters, but Champions to boot. Not one, but two Champions, both from Pallet Town, and both in such rapid succession! This is quite extraordinary."

And indeed it was, especially back then. Satoshi was the youth with the blue kimono, and Shigeru the one in purple, his rival since they were babies, but also his best friend. The two young men had both set off on their Pokémon journey together, and they had both returned just that day. They had both become, by the end of their long and adventurous journeys, Champions. The story is well known: Shigeru had always been one step ahead, always beating Satoshi, always besting him at ever turn; being the best was what was expected of him as a Pokémon Master's grandson, after all. Shigeru had even become Champion first! But Satoshi, through sheer determination, had kept up with him; and in the end, he had managed to defeat him, and had taken his title almost immediately after Shigeru won it. This is where this story starts.

Shigeru was still somewhat bitter.

Satoshi, for his part, was still smiling like an idiot:

"Thanks, Master Okkido!" the youth said rather cheerfully. Being a simple peasant boy, he was not burdened with the gravitas of being a Pokémon Master's grandson like Shigeru, and you would not have guessed it from the looks of him that he was currently the strongest trainer in Kanto

"Oh yes," Master Okkido's apprentice then chimed in "It is quite extraordinary. There will be a banquet in the town square tomorrow in your honor. The whole town is very happy for both of you!"

Here, a smile crept onto Shigeru's face at the thought of the banquet in his and Satoshi's honor. He relented somewhat. After all, he and Satoshi were still friends, in fact.

"Yes, I suppose you have won, fair and square." Shigeru conceded. It was useless to hold a grudge, after all "But this isn't over. I'll take my title back, you just wait and see!"

He had every reason to want to do this, too. The title of Pokémon Master by itself was very prestigious; that of Champion was only ever dreamt of by most. And even more so in those days, when the terms "Champion" and "Pokémon Master" were far more specifically defined than they are now:

Of course, back then, just as today, people from all walks of life worked together with Pokémon. Farmers used Tauros to till the fields, and they used the spores of Bellsprout or Oddish to help fertilize the land an produce better crops. Machoke was used in construction; and many houses had a Mr. Mime for help. Merchants also used Tauros to pull their carts and transport wares over long distances, although in the Johto Region, Donphan and sometimes even Stantler were preferred. As life was considerably more rugged back then, too, most people also used their Pokémon for protection; amateur Pokémon fighting was very highly developed, although perhaps less refined than it is now. The best modern trainers would still be formidable back then; but the general public was far more battle ready than it is now.

However, dedicating a life exclusively to training Pokémon was rare. Human settlements were small and far apart back then, and they were practically independent from each other, with no central governing body; thus, travel between them was very dangerous, and the threat of both warfare and powerful wild Pokémon was ever present. This meant that every town needed strong Pokémon Trainers for protection. But the difficulty, length and extraordinary danger of journeys, and furthermore the lack of mass produced Pokéballs -everyone used painstakingly handcrafted Apricorn Balls back then, as they were the only type in existence- as well as the sheer resources, time, and dedication -this is a constant in any era- required to train Pokémon well meant that only a select few people became trainers; but these had to be very powerful, and after proving themselves they would devote their lives to training Pokémon for their communities, mostly but not exclusively for fighting.

And of these trainers, the best were the Pokémon Masters.

In order to become a Pokémon Master, one undertook a perilous journey across a region to collect many different types of Pokémon. This seems somewhat easier nowadays, but it was very hard back then; one must merely consider how localized some Pokémon species are, especially those of particular types, and add to that the difficulty of travel in those times. The aspiring Pokémon Masters would then train their Pokémon against all types of Trainers, and collect prestigious Badges given out by the Pokémon Masters of other towns. Very often, these journeys were how friendships and alliances were formed between cities, as Pokémon Masters were usually leaders in their communities. In the largest towns, the local lords, almost invariably Pokémon Masters themselves, could practically field armies of Pokémon, and often ran dojos and other training schools were they trained apprentice trainers, themselves aspiring to become Pokémon Masters. These were the establishments that would in later periods become Pokémon Gyms.

Smaller towns, however, might even be under the care of a single Pokémon Master, as was the case of Pallet Town with Master Okkido, at least until Shigeru and Satoshi returned at the beginning of this story. This sometimes meant they were pushed around by bigger cities, but even so, they usually retained a lot of independence.

When a Pokémon Trainer had collected at least eight Badges, he would go to the local Pokémon League and, in a traditional ceremony, would be declared a Pokémon Master. All trainers, but especially Pokémon Masters, were revered and respected in their communities, but also held to very high standards of behavior. In short, they acted as a sort of feudal class, knights or samurai.

This is why this era was called the Feudal Period.

The closest thing to a centralized government that existed back then were the Pokémon Leagues. These were counsels of the Pokémon Masters of all the settlements in a region. Aside from confirming Pokémon Masters, they also held and certified highly ritualized tournaments and championship matches to determine the local Pokémon Champions, but they only convened in full when large-scale war or some other danger posed a threat to the entire region. The league formed by the Kanto Masters was the Indigo League, so named because of its headquarters on Indigo Plateau near a shrine to the legendary Pokémon Moltres.

Often, Champions or Elite Trainers (former Champions) stayed near the League headquarters to train or defend their title, but this was not always the case.

Given such conditions, that two young men from a town as small as Pallet would become Masters together was naturally a boon for the entire village. That they would be Champions in such rapid succession was the stuff of legend.

They had both been Master Okkido's apprentices before leaving, and thus, on returning, after seeing their families, they immediately went to visit him. The news of their victory had not been contained in Pallet Town either, but had soon spread around the entirety of Kanto. Some people had not received it quite as well as others, though...

"So now what do you plan on doing?" Master Okkido's apprentice asked the two Champions.

"Oh, I don't know," said Shigeru "I suppose I should stay around here... help grandfather with the Castle and such. Train some more, perhaps."

Satoshi blinked, and thought a bit.

"I guess I'll stay for a bit too," he said "Help mom and whatnot... I also have to do something about the Tauros herd. If I manage to keep it here, it'll be a huge asset for the village, if only for the milk, but we definitely need to clear some forest for them to stay here permanently. But I'm not done traveling yet. As soon as possible I'll leave again... visit Johto, maybe. After I go to Cerulean and Pewter City, of course."

"Cerulean and Pewter? Why?" Master Okkido inquired.

Shigeru smirked here, and Satoshi blushed a bit; Shigeru knew the answer and now was his chance to make fun of Satoshi. It was just a friendly jab, of course.

"Satoshi made some friends there." Shigeru said "Especially in Cerulean."

"H-hey!" Satoshi exclaimed, clearly flustered. The reference, of course, was to one of the Cerulean City's female Pokémon Masters, whom Satoshi had a notorious crush on.

Despite Satoshi's discomfort, however, Master Okkido laughed heartily at this, and so did his apprentice, and so the conversation from there carried onto other matters. Over dinner and drink, they eventually spoke of many things, of the past, of the future, of the present, of Pokémon, and of the world; they also spoke of trivial and petty things:

"Hey, Satoshi," Shigeru remarked at one point "It's lucky that, despite all our battles, we never became enemies... how weird would that be if we weren't friends?"

"I know, right?" Satoshi said "That would be weird."

Indeed it would be.

However, even as they spoke, and even as night fell over Kanto, had anyone been on the small dirt path leading from Viridian City to Pallet Town, they might have seen several rather shady and rather less friendly-looking figures, fully armored and clad in black, making their way to the small village of Pallet Town. They were threatening men, trainers, soldiers from the bigger city. There, they had also heard news of Satoshi and Shigeru's victories, but they were not exactly coming to congratulate them sincerely.

In fact, even before Satoshi and Shigeru's victories, trouble had been brewing in Kanto. The bigger cities, especially certain factions there, were bidding for more power. A young Champion, indeed, two if you counted Shigeru, from an insignificant village like Pallet Town was more than likely a fluke. But it was the sort of thing which had to be dealt with early on, lest it pose a threat to the not-very-transparent schemes emanating from Saffron and Viridian City.


	2. Chapter 2

_A.N.: Yo readers. Sorry for the unexpectedly long hiatus, but school came up and wouldn't go away. Luckily, yours truly the author is finally done with that, and back on track with this thing... here's chapter two._

 _Also, because it's been brought up in the comments, I might as well address it: yes, Pokémon Conquest does the same thing as this fanfic, at least in that it has Pokémon and is set in the feudal era. However, it is only extremely loosely, if at all, connected with the main Pokémon canon. As far as I know, no canon Pokémon material has been produced set in Kanto and Johto, or any other of the game/anime regions during the feudal era. That being said, Pokémon Conquest still seems like a pretty cool game._

 _With all that out of the way... well, I hope y'all like this; as always, R &R, it is very much appreciated._

 **Chapter II**

To call Pallet Town Castle a castle is perhaps something of a misnomer. It was more of a tower, really; three stories high and made of stone, it stood at the highest point in the village, overlooking a large precinct enclosed by a palisade; this was where Master Okkido's Pokémon lived. Inside, aside from the tower itself, there was a small shrine and a small well. At the precint's entrance there was a small guard post, perfect for posting a sentry, or a fire- or water-type Pokémon in case of battle. In times of emergency, the villagers could hide their goods -or their selves- behind the walls of the precinct. Another, higher, wood-reinforced palisade surrounded the entirety of Pallet Town.

The larger wall had existed since Pallet Town had been founded. The castle, in its current form, had been built by Master Okkido's great-great grandfather, and the inside palisade by his grandfather. Master Okkido himself had built the sentry post, and extensively restored the entirety of the defensive works. A town as small as Pallet could never be well-defended enough, at least not in such a large and dangerous world.

The first person, or rather Pokémon, to see the approaching enemy riders was Master Okkido's Farfetch'd, who at this point had been roosting perched atop the central tower of the "castle". As the dust rose along the road to Viridian City, the Farfetch'd let out a loud squawk, warning the denizens of the castle of the impending danger, and it rapidly began hopping towards the ground, squawking again and again as it went down the multiple, oriental-style roofs of the tower, anxious to let everyone know of the incoming intruders. Luckily, Master Okkido and his disciples were still awake, albeit somewhat full from their dinner, and hastily grabbed their _katanas_ and Apricorn Balls and went to see what the trouble was. The riders entered the village, and, just as Farfetch'd reached the ground, and Master Okkido and his disciples came out into the courtyard, they came pouring into the precinct, the gates of which had been left open that night, placing themselves strategically everywhere inside the castle courtyard.

There was about a dozen of the riders and they had soon filled the precinct. They were clad in full armor, and clearly armed to the teeth, riding on very fearsome-looking mounts. Shigeru and Satoshi looked at each other. They knew what these people were... sadly. The riders did not seem aggressive, not just yet, but the air was tense; it is not often that twelve armed men barge into your village in the middle of the night.

Master Okkido seemed undisturbed; or at least he tried to put on that facade.

He also knew who the riders were.

"What does the Lord of Viridian City want of me?" he said, sternly "That he sends his soldiers into my village in a time of peace with open gates."

That they were from Viridian City was evident from their banners. The man who seemed to be at the head of the company of soldiers answered sternly:

"The Lord of Viridian is not an unjust ruler," he said "He will not send his _samurai_ except to collect what is due to him."

 _Samurai._ Even the most common of trainers in those days were a class apart, but the samurai were something else. Shigeru and Satoshi had fought against many samurai in their travels, and they knew them well.

Out of all the classes of trainers, these were the ones geared the most explicitly towards fighting. They believed that the only true purpose of their Pokémon was to fight, and they believed not only in fighting with Pokémon, but also alongside them. Thus, these trainers would only chose the most battle-worthy Pokémon; and having chosen them, they would train them intensely, and train themselves along with them. Before going into battle, the samurai would arm themselves to the teeth, carrying long _katana_ swords, and they would cover every inch of their body with heavy black armor so that no points on them would ever be vulnerable. This practically made them as strong in fights as their Pokémon. It was said that the only parts of a samurai the enemy should ever see was the gleam of the steel in his sword, and, through his eyes, the gleam of the steel in his soul.

However, the most terrible part of the samurai was perhaps not the samurai himself, but, rather, his mount. For a samurai never fought alone: all samurai, as a matter of course, trained and rode Rapidash, the firehorse, into battle. Thus the twelve riders that had entered Pallet Town came on top of twelve highly trained Rapidash. Even to our day, Rapidash are notoriously difficult to ride, and you can only really do it with a special fireproof saddle; but in those days, the samurai fitted their Rapidash with a special armor, both in order to defend them from enemy blows and the water jets of water-type Pokémon, but also, chiefly, in order to defend the riders themselves from the flames on Rapidash's back. Thus, if you weren't cut down by a samurai's sword, you could be carbonized by the breath of his Rapidash, or else trampled under its diamond-hard hooves.

To have a dozen of these monsters in a castle courtyard was not reassuring.

You can still see the saddles and armor of the fearsome samurai in museums to this day, although they do not quite convey just how terrible these fiery, steel-clad war machines looked in battle. The technology for making their fireproof armor was developed on Cinnabar Island, however only the largest towns in the region could afford to man companies of samurai; these were, traditionally, only Saffron and Celadon. Lately, the Lord of Viridian City had also begun to train samurai as well, much to the dismay of surrounding communities.

The steel swords of the samurai produced a glint under the Pallet Town moon, and, under the black steel armor, the fires of the Rapidash glowed like a furnace in the night.

The apparent head of the company of samurai now rode up closer to Master Okkdio, scoffing down at him from atop his mount.

"Master Okkdio," he said "Pallet Town is a vassal to Viridian City. As such, it is only right that the Lord of Viridian City should send his samurai to collect tribute. There is nothing dishonorable in that."

Once again, Shigeru and Satoshi exchanged a knowing look. They'd heard of this stuff, in their letters from Master Okkido... the Lord of Viridian city had been getting active, demanding tribute, and claiming, of all things, that Pallet Town was his vassal. This, of course, was entirely false.

That there were well-established and traditional ties of vassalage between many communities in Kanto and Johto in those days is well-known. A smaller community would pay tribute to a larger one in exchange for protection, and the two would frequently embark on military ventures together. There was nothing dishonorable in the fact of being a vassal, in and of itself. Cerulean City, for example, held the small community to its north as a vassal for many years, although this village was eventually agglomerated into the Sonezaki estate. Saffron City, the largest city in Kanto, alongside it several vassal villages -most of which in our day have been absorbed into the main urban area- also had lordship over Vermillion City, the main commerical port in Kanto; in exchange for a sizeable cut of Vermillion's rich commercial taxes, Saffron would offer the city protection against enemies and piracy, and its armies would help run the place smoothly. It was an honorable agreement.

Pallet Town, however, was part of no such agreement; it was a free town, and proud of it. But in recent years, the Lord of Viridian City had been building up his army, and claiming more and more land around his own city. And at length, he had come up with the fabrication that, somehow, Pallet Town should, in fact, be his vassal. And on these grounds, he had first demanded tribute exactly one year before the date on which this story begins.

Master Okkido had refused, of course, on the very reasonable grounds that the vassalage claims were completely fabricated, and it seemed then that the Lord of Viridian City had left it there. It was good; Shigeru and Satoshi had been outraged just on reading of this. However, from the looks of it, this year Viridian had returned in arms.

Master Okkido remained impavid.

"If you would produce so much as one treaty or one record of our vassalage," he said "I would gladly pay you. But unfortunately, your claims seem to be as empty as your skull."

The samurai commander did not seem amused by this retort.

"Take care, old man," he said "You may be a Pokémon Master, but so is my own lord. And it remains to be seen whether your Pokémon can defend you..." here, the samurai drew his katana sword "From cold steel."

Suddenly, the atmosphere got even heavier. Now arms had been drawn. Another, second, samurai rode forward, rejoining his commander, although in a calmer tone:

"Master Okkido," the second samurai said softly "You have in the very precinct of your fort a company of twelve samurai. We can not only easily slay you and your disciples here, but, furthermore, we could burn Pallet Town to the ground this very night, if we so chose: the Lord of Viridian City has been patient enough... If Pallet Town does not pay its tribute this year, so be it. My lord, however, may well be forced to destroy your village, and rebuild in its ashes a new town, one which _will_ be willing to pay its tribute."

Shigeru and Satoshi could not believe what they were hearing... Open threat? they knew the Lord of Viridian City was a dangerous man, but this...

"The only reason you are inside my precinct," Master Okkido responded "Is that it was a time of peace and the gates were open. You come here, I understand, as diplomats. You have no right to use violence, and if you do attack me, it will be your own crime and dishonor."

"Be silent!" the first samurai exclaimed, visibly irked by the accusation of dishonor.

The second samurai seemed to take it far more lightly.

"It may be so," he said simply and calmly "But Pallet Town will not burn any less for it."

Up until this point, Shigeru and Satoshi had been silent; out of respect, they had let Master Okkido do the talking. But now it had become too much: the lies about Pallet Town, the flagrant disregard and abuse of the tradition of vassalage, and now, open, overt threats of violence, were not something any honorable Pokémon champion could stomach.

And for Satoshi in particular, there was an additional factor: Shigeru had been born a noble, and he had been brought up on steady tradition and honor; for him, the idea that someone could claim a fake vassal was quite enough to drive him to action, coupled with the implied accusation of weakness. But Satoshi was a peasant, and he had been born a peasant, and he knew very well what tribute meant; even though he was now Pokémon Champion, and thus assured a relatively good living, he knew that anything paid to Viridian City would be paid in kind, that is, in agricultural produce; and that when it was paid, there would then be that much less for him and for the other villagers to eat. Pallet Town was in a good enough state... generally, feudal ties were not unbearable or abusive... but peasants were always at the tail end of these kinds of deals.

Although Viridian City had never taken any payment as a lord or suzerain of Pallet Town yet, one year, during the restoration of the walls, at a time Satoshi was still a child, Pallet Town had bought a large amount of good, solid stone off of Viridian. During that transaction, the Lord of Viridian City had "re-evaluated" the price three times, always raising it higher, and using force to impose his own view of a fair bargain, until Pallet Town had been coerced into hand over a massive chunk of its annual harvest just to close the deal. Master Okkido had given in, in order to avoid an outright war; and, of course, being a good Pokémon Master, he and his family had chipped in more than their fair share in order to cover the expense; and once the exorbitant price had been paid, he had done this best to keep everyone fed; but ultimately, the peasants had only paid less because they had less to give. And Satoshi could remember a great deal of nights that year where he and his mother went to bed hungry, for all the harvest had gone to pay for the stones in the wall. And a yearly tribute... well, that would mean that, for other kids and their mothers, Wall Year would be ever year.

For that reason, and that reason alone, Satoshi was the first to speak up:

"Pallet Town does not owe anybody tribute!" he said "And the Lord of Viridian City should begin to act more like a lord... and less like a thief."

The first samurai then spoke up, clearly incensed:

"Master Okkido, tell your disciple to hold his tongue... or else..."

At which point, Master Okkido looked at the ground.

"I cannot presume" he said, respectfully, although there was perhaps a hint of pride in his tone "I cannot even begin presume to tell the reigning Pokémon Champion to be silent."

The lead samurai stopped in his tracks:

"The Pokémon Champion?"

At that point, a great many things happened at the same time. Having drawn his sword, and clearly stunned at the revelation that the "disciple" Satoshi was, in fact, the reigning Pokémon Champion, the commander of the samurai decided that it would be best to simply be done with this charade of diplomacy, and attack immediately. He raised his sword, readying himself to deliver a fatal blow right to Master Okkido. The second samurai, seeing that a battle was about to ensue, far more wisely raised his hand and gave a silent command to all the other samurai to attack, while also reaching for his own sword with the other hand. Shigeru and Satoshi, seeing their Master in great danger, immediately rushed to help, but two samurai immediately fell on each of them to stop them.

And as for Master Okkido, he did not even seem aware that the samurai was about to strike him with his katana.


End file.
